BAFTA Launches Online Resource for Live Streaming of Events

British Academy will debut "Guru" service with Errol Morris lecture.

LONDON – The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is flicking the switch on a new online service aiming to boost fresh-faced ambition looking to kickstart a career in the film, television and gaming industries.

BAFTA is launching BAFTA Guru, billed as a new player for the Academy’s video archive and targeted at 18-30-year-olds, eyeing a career in the creative industries.

The online player will carry editorial and blogs and provide “access to some of the best minds in film, television and video games.”

BAFTA Guru will carry interviews, lectures, masterclasses and debates with industry players, the British Academy said.

In 2012, BAFTA hopes to allow new creatives an opportunity to upload profiles and showreels for discussion to the online player.

BAFTA head of learning and events Tim Hunter said the plans for BAFTA Guru takes the Academy’s activities to a broader audience.

“For the first time ever, we are live streaming our David Lean Lecture with Errol Morris, to an international audience,” Hunter said by way of example.

Morris’ David Lean lecture, scheduled for later this month, will be BAFTA Guru’s debut stream.

It is also the first time BAFTA has been able to invite an international audience to one of its London events and BAFTA members in New York will be invited to watch.

BAFTA NYC chair Harlene Freezer said: “With the launch of Guru we can now bring many of these programs to the U.S. in ‘real time’ and share this vast resource with a new generation of media artists and film goers.”